


The Academy

by Kivuline



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Academy, Academy Era, Alternate Universe, F/M, I'm Bad At Tagging, Jemma Simmons-centric, Light Angst, Love Letters, Pranks, SHIELD Academy, SHIELD Academy Era, Tags Are Hard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-19
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2019-11-24 06:06:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18162317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kivuline/pseuds/Kivuline
Summary: Jemma Simmons has just arrived at the Academy and is well aware she is the youngest student there, but that didn't help her know what to expect in her new environment.





	1. First Day

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing a story for this fandom so please be nice! I suppose the setting and the choice of character is ironic because I’m procrastinating doing homework for college. Also my first time posting on this website so if I'm doing something wrong/weirdly please tell me.

Seventeen-year old Jemma Simmons approached the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy of Science and Technology with her bags. She had to admit that she was a bit nervous about being here. She was in a new country and despite speaking the same language, she knew that England and the United States had cultural differences. It was undeniable that she was a brilliant student; she had two PhDs already. Admittance to Sci-Tech required at least one PhD though, so Jemma expected to be around a variety of people just as smart if not smarter than herself. On that note, she couldn’t help but worry that the age gap would make her a target. She’d always ended up the youngest in her classes in recent years, so it wasn’t exactly a new concept, but she was so much closer to home then. Now she was alone. 

Jemma walked through the halls of the dorm, searching for her room. She knew she had the right building and floor, it was just a matter of finding the room. She glanced in each direction down the hall and turned left, stopping in front of room 2424. A quick look down at the paper in her hand confirmed that this was her room. Jemma unlocked the door and pulled her bags into the room, pushing the door shut again with her foot. She was thrilled that the Academy had single rooms; she couldn’t imagine trying to get much work done with another person constantly in the room, so having her own room and bathroom was a huge plus is her book. 

Class schedules had been sent out to the students a couple of weeks before, and Jemma had been quick to obtain her books. Getting to the Academy, however, had taken more time than she had expected and now it was only the day before the first day of class. The largest problem there was of course the jet lag, going five hours back from home to here would be a bit of an adjustment, but with any luck maybe she’d just wake up early. She’d presumably have to get used to staying up late studying anyway, and Jemma was sure that her internal clock would adjust soon. 

After spending about an hour unpacking, Jemma decided to go scout out where her classes were for the next day. Wandering about like a lost puppy on the first day wouldn’t do her any good after all. Jemma grabbed her keys and phone, locked the door, and set off for the main Academy building. Other students were outside milling about, talking, reading, and listening to music. None of them paid Jemma any heed; there was no reason for them to notice her. She couldn’t help but worry that someone would stop her though. 

In hindsight, it was unsurprising that Jemma located each of her classes uninterrupted, and she spent the rest of the hour exploring other areas of the Academy: the cafeteria, the library, various study rooms, and of course, her favorite, the lab. She’d always loved being in the lab, it was where she came up with many of her endless questions and where she could begin to find the answers to them. Content with her findings, the young scientist returned to her room to prepare for bed. She realized it wasn’t particularly late, but the jet lag was already affecting her and a good night’s sleep before the first day of class couldn’t possibly be a bad thing. 

Once ready for bed Jemma unzipped her backpack and pulled out one of her textbooks. She was tired, but she wanted to skim through the reading for tomorrow one last time. She wanted to make a good first impression after all. Another round of highlighting and note taking later, the textbook was put away and Jemma curled up in bed, checking her phone one last time to find a text from her mum. 

‘Hi, Jemma, hope you got to the Academy safely and are settling in well. Best of luck tomorrow and try not to worry too much! You’ll be just fine! We love you!’ the text read. 

Jemma smiled and sent a quick text back. ‘Thanks mum! I’m all settled in and ready for tomorrow, I think. Give dad a hug for me! Love you both!’ 

With no more messages to answer, Jemma set her alarm to give herself plenty of time to get ready the next morning and set an extra alarm, just in case. After double-checking the alarms and plugging the phone up to charge, she finally went to sleep. 

 

The next morning Jemma woke up with a start to the sound of her alarm and quickly turned it off. She hadn’t realized the night before that she’d set it to be so loud. The brunette crawled out of bed and stretched, grateful that she’d given herself plenty of time to prepare for her day and gather her thoughts. She went over to her closet and picked out a pair of plain black pants and a white shirt with black sleeves. Once she was dressed, she made some tea and a bowl of cereal and sat at her desk for breakfast. One of her textbooks was still open on the desk from yesterday and she flipped through it curiously for a moment before setting aside and grabbing a  _Harry Potter_  book. On top of being a studious girl, she loved to read for fun and this was one of her favorite series. She'd always related to Hermione in particular, but she supposed that could be expected. 

With breakfast finished and her dishes washed, Jemma went to put on some simple makeup. She wasn’t a huge fan of makeup and certainly didn’t apply a lot like some girls did, but she liked to do a small amount of eyeshadow and mascara with a powder foundation. She grabbed her brush and brushed out the knots in her hair from sleep and checked to make sure none of it was sticking straight up before brushing her teeth and going to pack her backpack for the morning’s classes.  

A quick glance at her watch confirmed that she still had plenty of time, but Jemma decided she’d like to get to her first class a little early to make sure she got a good seat, preferably near the front since her first class was a lecture. She gave the room a once over to see if she’d forgotten anything and went to open the door. As soon as she stepped into the hall, she was suddenly soaked by a water balloon that must have been above her door, placed to where it would fall when the door opened. 

“Bloody hell!” she gasped, trying to process what had happened. She couldn’t fathom why this would be happening here, and on the first day of class of all days! She quickly assessed that she couldn’t be the only one based on similar puddles of water throughout the hall. Why would no one else have thought to warn each other then? Perhaps, like she was now realizing, they simply didn’t have the time. 

Jemma darted back into her room with a huff to change into dry clothes. Luckily her bag seemed mostly dry, but her hair and clothes were soaked and walking around until lunch four hours later in sopping clothes did not appeal to her at all. She snatched a dry outfit from her closet and changed quickly, abandoned the wet clothes on the floor. She’d deal with them later, there wasn’t time to hang them up. A glance in the mirror showed that her mascara was running. Jemma groaned and ran into the bathroom, cleaning her running makeup the best she could in the short amount of time she had. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do for her hair, and she didn’t have time to fix her makeup. She looked like a drowned rat which was most definitely not how she wanted to start her first day. Damn. 

Another look at her watch confirmed her fears; she had to go now if she didn’t want to be late to her first class, and she most definitely did not want to be late. Jemma snagged her bag from where she’d dropped it and left for class again, her head down a bit as she walked. She hoped she wouldn’t be the only one like this. She was so embarrassed that she looked like this, but she supposed that maybe this was some form of strange test?  

Jemma slipped into class and sat down beside a blonde who also looked a bit like a drowned rat. 

“They get you too, huh?” the blonde asked, turning to face Jemma. 

“Yes... who are ‘they’ exactly though? What is all this about?” Jemma frowned. 

“The upperclassmen. It’s a tradition. The first years always get pranked constantly with no warning and you never know what’s gonna happen. I think they went with water balloons for all the first years today to mark us or something, makes future pranks easier,” the blonde shrugged. 

“How do you know all this? I’d never heard about it before.” 

“My brother, he graduated last year and gave a few tips and warnings. Non-classified information of course.” 

“Oh. That makes sense. Um, what’s your name?” 

“Addison. You?” the blonde grinned. 

“Jemma,” she smiled back. 

“No, I mean your last name. We do last names here, except outside of class during our personal time and all.” 

“Oh... Simmons then. Sorry about that. No offense, but how old are you? I don’t have any frame of reference for here.” 

“Me? I’m twenty-two. You look a bit young to be here to be entirely honest,” Addison replied curiously. 

“I’m seventeen. They said that some guy and I are the youngest to ever be admitted. I think I’m qualified though, and they clearly did, and I’m sorry, I don’t mean to sound all defensive I’m just a bit nervous. I felt ready this morning and this... Prank happened, and now I’m all anxious again,” Jemma looked down, a bit embarrassed about rambling. 

“No way! How did you even get in here then? You'd better be ready. They love to pick on first years but with that much of a gap there’s gonna be a ton of them that look down on you as just a kid. Well, I mean, legally you are a kid.” 

“I may be younger but that doesn’t make me less intelligent or less capable. And I'm eighteen in September. It isn’t that far off.” 

“I suppose, but that doesn’t mean it’ll make much of a difference to them,” Addison shrugged and turned to her notebook, pushing her damp blonde hair out of her face. Jemma started to respond but stopped when the professor started talking. 

The class passed rather uneventfully besides the professor herself pointing out the gaggle of soaked first years. She seemed amused, which just supports what Addison said about it being tradition. Jemma assumed that none of the pranks were allowed to be dangerous since the staff so far didn’t seem to care much. 

Jemma’s other classes of the morning passed in a similar manner. She had one other class with Addison, and this younger guy was in most of her classes so far, but she didn’t know his name. Based on looks she’d guess that he might be the same age as her and be the other person who got in this young. He certainly seemed smart, he spoke up and answered questions a fair amount, and to her annoyance it was often the same questions she’d try to answer. 

Addison, while seemingly a bit reluctant to be hanging around the kid all the time, agreed to have lunch with Jemma and maybe meet up later to study together. Both girls finally had dry hair by now, and Jemma had found a moment to fix her face up a little, so they didn’t look entirely like disasters. It’s the small victories. 

The rest of the day wasn’t particularly interesting either until chem lab when Jemma was partnered with the younger guy. He wouldn’t make eye contact with her. He seemed a bit nervous. She started to ask his name but was cut off by the professor starting to call roll; it was a much smaller class than the lecture halls and attendance was actually recorded whereas the cadets were expected to show up to lecture regardless. 

“Leopold Fitz?” the professor called. 

“Here!” the young man across from Jemma looked up suddenly. He glanced at her and went back to his textbook. Jemma frowned. He did seem competitive throughout the day so far, maybe he saw her as a threat somehow? She had to agree that she was feeling a touch competitive herself. After all they both had something to prove to the rest of the Academy. They had to prove they were worth of being there. Of course- 

“Jemma Simmons?” the professor called, tearing Jemma from her thoughts. 

“Here!” Jemma looked up from staring at her own textbook to find Fitz studying her. He looked back down as soon as he realized she noticed and she frowned. Her attempt to question him was again cut off by the professor who began to give instructions for class today, which mostly consisted of follow the instructions in the textbook and lab manual and ask questions if you have any. Jemma had a feeling that this was supposed to test their attentiveness somewhat as well as the actual material of the class. 

Fitz and Jemma talked little during the class despite working together. Most of their interactions consisted of brief, one-word commands to each other to make sure that the other was paying attention. Jemma attempted to strike up a conversation once or twice, but he brushed her off and didn’t seem interested in talking. He still wouldn’t really look at her. 

Despite their minimal communications, they completed the admittedly simple experiment rather easily and the professor approved of their work. Jemma smiled, feeling rather pleased with herself. It was a basic experiment, it was only the first day after all, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t happy to have gotten it right and been acknowledged for it. Fitz looked happy too even though he wouldn’t look at her. There was nothing else for them to do today, and they were released from class to go wherever they wished. For Jemma, it was her last class of the day, and unbeknownst to her it was Fitz’s last class for the day too. 

The two left and class and ended up walking in the same direction, much to Jemma’s surprise. After a couple of minutes of awkward silence, she glanced over at him curiously to find his eyes firmly glued to the path ahead. 

“Um... Fitz, is it?” Jemma asked quietly. 

“Yes, Simmons?” he replied. 

“Just, um... did you get water ballooned this morning too?” Jemma asked distractedly. It wasn’t her original question but she hadn’t expected him to answer. 

“That obvious?” Fitz frowned, reaching up to mess with his hair for a moment. 

“No! I mean, a bit. I know I still look a bit of a mess, myself. Are you the other youngest they let in? You just seem a lot younger than the others. I am too. I’m only seventeen. I got warned that they might try and mess with me more than the other first years because of it, so I thought maybe I’d warn you too,” Jemma babbled, pausing to breathe. 

“Er, yea, I am. I just turned eighteen a couple days ago. So, I guess I get to avoid the kid bias at least,” Fitz hesitated. 

“I suppose I’ll have to go through that alone the next few weeks then until my birthday... but that’s alright. Happy late birthday!” 

“Thanks, I guess.” 

“Where are you headed?” 

“My room. 2423. I want to get a head start on the homework from today.” 

“Oh! I’m 2424, maybe we could work together some? Could be fun,” Jemma suggested with a smile as they stepped off the elevator. 

“Yea... maybe. I’ll think about it,” Fitz replied, still not looking at her. He stopped in front of his door and unlocked it. “Bye Simmons,” he added and ducked into his room. 

Jemma frowned uncertainly and opened the door to her own room and walked inside, nudging the door shut behind her. The abandoned wet clothes on the floor drew a sigh from her and she picked them up and trudged to the bathroom to hang them up to try. She sat down on her bed and pulled out her phone to text her mom. 

‘Hey, mum! First day was alright. I made a friend, I think, and my chem lab partner is the 18-year-old guy they said was the other youngest to ever get in. He’s in the room next to mine, we have a few other classes together so maybe we can study together? Maybe get Addison to study with us too. I have to work on my homework though. Love you, mum!’ Jemma set her phone down and sat down at her desk to finally start on her homework. 


	2. A Mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma get pushed a little beyond her boundaries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you have good prank ideas feel free to pm me.

The first week of classes had just ended; it was Friday evening, and Jemma sat down in her room, exhausted. She knew that part of it was definitely the jet lag, but the massive amounts of work weren’t doing her any favors. The BioChem cadet had been up late every night that week dutifully completing her homework and struggling not to give in to her internal clock begging her to go to sleep at 8pm each night as she attempted to force herself to adjust to the new time zone. The lack of a study buddy wasn’t helping much either. Addison tended to not like to be seen with her outside of class and Fitz just genuinely didn’t seem to like her. She’d tried to strike up a few conversations with the young man over the past few days, but any questions were met with short, vague answers. Most conversations continued to consist of short commands to each other in lab.

Jemma did try not to let these things get to her. She’d expected that making friends would be difficult because of the age gap, but she had somewhat hoped that she and Fitz could stick together. As the week had gone on though she was starting to think that she didn’t particularly care for him either. He always seemed to be trying to one-up her. Clearly the competitiveness between them wasn’t gone.

Jemma groaned and curled up in bed for a moment, checking her phone. She’d exchanged numbers with both Addison and Fitz despite their reluctance because at least they could agree to have mutual respect for one another’s intelligence.

Reflections over the past week brought Jemma’s mind to the lowest moments of her week: the continued pranks. She could only hope that they would reside as everyone settled in and became more focused on their schoolwork. While she could be mistaken, more pranks seemed to be focused on her and Fitz than anyone else.

On Wednesday, Jemma opened her door and walked straight into a large fake spiderweb that had been placed over her door and concealed using a one-use cloaking device someone had attached to the wall. Once again, she had almost been late to class as she struggled to deal with the fake web stuck to her clothes, hair, and face. The laughter from down the hall at her scream of surprise hadn’t helped either.

This morning she couldn’t help but wonder how many of them were working on this as she couldn’t imagine a single person having enough time to pull this off. Upon opening her door, she found the hallway lined with cups of water, placed just close enough to where one couldn’t step around them. She had seen where farther down the hall other students had just knocked the cups over, leaving a mess. Reluctantly, she’d had to do the same and spent the day walking around with wet shoes and socks.

Jemma’s reflections on the week’s events were broken by a knock at her door. She frowned uncertainly and went to look through the peephole, not trusting that it wouldn’t be someone with a new prank. A small smile crossed her face when she realized it was just Addison and she opened the door.

“Hey, Simmons, a couple of the girls and I were heading out tonight. You wanna come?” the blonde asked, leaning against the doorframe.

“Oh, um, I guess. Out where? Dinner?” Jemma hesitated.

“Well, kinda. More like drinks and snacks maybe. Bit of a party scene,” Addison shrugged.

“Sure? Let me just grab some shoes,” Jemma decided after a moment and walked over to her closet.

“That what you’re wearing?” Addison followed her into the room and plopped down on the bed, not caring if she was invited in or not. Jemma didn’t particularly appreciate the lack of respect for her space, but there was little point in saying anything now.

“Should I wear something different...?” the younger woman asked uncertainly.

“Definitely. You look like a nerdy kid,” Addison grinned, her tone a mixture of seriousness and teasing.

“I don’t own much different...” Jemma frowned, thumbing through her clothes.

“Just undo a couple buttons on your blouse then,” Addison sighed, a bit disappointed. She and her friends were trying to see how far they could push the kid out of her comfort zone.

“Um... alright,” Jemma obliged, doing as she was told and slipping some shoes on. She grabbed her small purse and her keys and turned to the older woman. “Ready, I guess?”

Addison grinned and bounced to her feet, grabbing Jemma by the wrist and half leading, half dragging her out the door. Jemma stopped long enough to lock the door behind her before letting the blonde lead her down the hall, to the elevator, and outside to where two other girls were waiting.

“This is Sierra and Chelsea,” Addison said, pointing to a redhead and a brunette in turn.

“You convinced the kid to come, Victoria!” Sierra laughed, giving Jemma a once over.

“Victoria?” Jemma asked confused.

“My first name. The last name gig is mostly just for classes, yea?” Victoria shrugged. “Girls, this is Jemma Simmons. Seventeen-year-old extraordinaire!” the blonde added with a slight laugh, giving Jemma a little push forward.

Chelsea caught the British girl as she stumbled and steadied her. “Heard a lot about you from Victoria. Hope you’re prepared for tonight!”

“Sorry, but what about tonight?” Jemma pushed her hair back behind her ear.

“You’ll see!” the other three girls exclaimed in unison and laughed before leading the way. After a few feet they pulled Jemma up to walk with them and chattered amongst themselves as they made their way through the school. Jemma was thoroughly confused as to where they were going and why they were going through the school. They finally stopped in front of a door with a sign that read ‘Boiler Room.’

“The boiler room?” Jemma frowned confused. This had to be a prank. Why would they be taking her here of all places? She tried to back away but Chelsea and Sierra caught her arms as Victoria opened the door.

“It’s more like a club,” Victoria explained, leading the other three girls down the stairs. The music from the Boiler Room bled up the stairs. The older girls seemed confident enough but Jemma froze for a moment, forgetting to move until they grabbed her hand and pulled her with them down the stairs. Victoria may not have been entirely honest about there being snacks.

The noise and the dancing were admittedly overwhelming to Jemma, she’d never been anywhere like this before. The other three didn’t seem to care at all and went straight to get drinks. Jemma followed hesitantly, wrapping her arms around herself nervously as she tried to navigate the crowd of people moving around her. One or two bumped into her and she gasped slightly, anxious that they’d say something about her being there. No one really seemed to care though.

The older trio got drinks for themselves and an extra drink and grabbed Jemma, dragging her off to the only empty table which was near the middle of the room. The four girls sat down around the table and Victoria slid the extra drink over to Jemma who stared at it with wide eyes. She’d had a small glass of wine before with her parents at dinner once or twice but she’d never had a serious drink before and she didn’t even know what this was.

“I-I don’t drink... sorry, thank you thought,” Jemma said quietly, looking around and trying to take everything in.

“Aw, c’mon, Jemma, just try it! It's not that bad. And better now with us, right?” Victoria grinned, taking a sip of her own drink.

“Lot more fun that way,” Sierra added.

“And besides, you don’t want everyone to think you’re just a kid who doesn’t get any of this, right? Cause that’s what most people think right now anyway,” Chelsea shrugged and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

“But I mean... that’s kinda what I am. I’m just smart. And I thought that would be valued here. I thought we were all here to learn about Shield and all...” Jemma looked down, uncertainty shining in her eyes.

“We are, of course, but it’s no fun if we’re all serious all the time. Lighten up a little, kid, we could all stand to get a break,” Chelsea rolled her eyes.

“I-I guess...” Jemma replied reluctantly and picked up the drink. She sniffed it and made a face. “what is this?”

“Long island iced tea with some strawberry to make it sweeter,” Victoria smiled.

“Sweeter?” Jemma frowned.

“It’s usually really bitter, way less fun when it’s that bitter,” Sierra explained.

“Then why would you drink it at all?”

“Oh, stop stalling,” Chelsea sighed.

“Alright, alright, I guess a little won’t hurt,” Jemma hesitated and took a sip of the drink, immediately making a face. “Ick!”

The trio laughed and watched the younger girl who was looking between them all with an expression of mild distress. “It gets better once you’re used to it,” Victoria insisted, drinking some of her own.

Jemma scrunched of her nose and closed her eyes before drinking a little more. The initial shock being gone did make it a little better. It still wasn’t great though. Why was she doing this? Oh. Right. To prove she wasn’t just the kid. She didn’t have much of a reference as to how strong this type of thing was, but it seemed pretty strong to her. She wished suddenly that they had food. She’d heard that you should have food and she hadn’t eaten since lunch hours ago. That probably wasn’t her best idea. The other three were still giggling.

“How you feeling?” Chelsea grinned, pulling Jemma out of her thoughts. The younger girl blinked and shrugged, a little confused, before swallowing more of her drink.

Jemma paused to make a face again and set the drink down for a moment. “Victoria said there’d be snacks?” she asked hopefully.

“There’s some pretzels,” Sierra piped up and pushed a bowl across the table.

Jemma stared at the bowl confused. Where did that come from? Maybe she just didn’t notice it. She picked a few of them of them and ate them slowly, looking around and contemplating the others. Maybe she shouldn’t be here. She frowned and sipped her drink, not entirely thinking about it. She blinked and scrunched up her face again before getting up.

“I think I should go lay down,” Jemma mumbled, blinking to focus her vision. She knew she hadn’t actually had a lot to drink, at least, she didn’t think she had. The combination of not eating and half of what seemed to her like a large, strong drink was definitely making her dizzy though.

“Aww, c’mon, Jemma. You don’t have to go back yet!” Victoria insisted.

Jemma shook her head “n-no... I should go. Good night,” she murmured and walked away. The bodies dancing around her made navigating even more difficult and she nearly fell a couple of times. She found the stairs and made her way up and into the hall. Jemma blinked, trying to focus, and turned down the hall, keeping one hand on the wall to guide and steady herself.

Slowly but surely, Jemma made her way back to her room. She wasn’t walking straight anymore and her vision was incredibly blurred. She fumbled with the keys to her door and dropped them. Cursing under her breath she bent down to pick them up and fell, losing her balance. Jemma tried to get back up but her body felt too heavy. She flopped back down and closed her eyes.

Fitz looked up from his book at the sound of a soft thud in the hallway. He assumed it was probably just someone getting into trouble again with some prank. After a moment he frowned. That wouldn’t make sense though. It’s the weekend, there’s not much to gain from it. He got up and opened the door, pausing when he saw Simmons unconscious in the hall. She seemed to be alone which was really weird and why was she unconscious?

Fitz shook her gently to try and wake her up but she didn’t respond. He sighed and picked up her keys, slipping them into his own pocket. He picked her up the best he could and took her into his own room and put her on the bed. He didn’t want to leave her unconscious in the hall and risk anyone finding her and getting any ideas. He himself most definitely didn’t though he was aware it might look that way. He closed the door and sat back down at his desk on the other side of the room. He didn’t want to scare her, but he was also worried about her being on her own if she’d passed out.

He stared down at his book for a moment then sighed and looked back up. Fitz grabbed the trashcan by his desk and set it next to the bed, not sure if Simmons would be able to make it to bathroom if she woke up sick. He sat back down at his desk. His book, while actually a book he was reading because of his own interests, suddenly wasn’t interesting anymore. He took her keys out of his pocket and set them on the nightstand beside her and returned once again to his chair.

Another fruitless attempt to read caused Fitz to sigh and swivel his chair to face the TV. He turned it on, keeping the volume low to try not to disturb Simmons, and put on an episode of _Doctor Who._ Fitz settled back in his chair, content to watch the show until she woke up. He hadn’t planned to stay up this long but he figured he didn’t have much choice now.

A couple of hours passed and Fitz was disturbed from the uncomfortable sleep he’d fallen into in the chair by Simmons retching into the trash can. He waited until she stopped to turn around, not wanting to embarrass her more. He turned to find her wiping her mouth with a tissue and dropping that into the trash can too.

Jemma froze when she realized who she was looking at and stared at him, blinking erratically. Fitz didn’t move giving her time to process. A few moments passed in awkward silence before Jemma looked down and rebuttoned her blouse from when Victoria had told her to undo a couple buttons before. Fitz looked away again for a moment, waiting for her to speak first.

“Wh-what happened?” Jemma croaked, her voice hoarse. Her throat was dry and her head hurt.

“I don’t know. I found you unconscious in the hall so I brought you in here to make sure you were ok.” Fitz replied, filling a cup with water and setting it next to her. He returned to his chair again, not wanting to crowd her.

“Thanks...” Jemma mumbled gratefully, taking the water and slowly drinking it. She held her head for a moment, closing her eyes and waiting to make sure she could keep the water down. She swallowed again looked up at him.

“I-I promise I didn’t do anything to you, if that’s what you’re thinking. I haven’t touched you besides putting you on the bed. I’ve been over here” Fitz explained anxiously. He didn’t want her to think he had any ill intentions and he could already tell that she looked scared and confused.

“Good... I appreciate it...” Jemma groaned covering her mouth for a moment and closing her eyes. She took a few deep breaths and opened her eyes again. “God, you must think I’m a fool,” she mumbled.

“No! Of course not, just surprised. I didn’t have you pegged as that kind of girl,” Fitz shrugged, looking away again.

“I am not!” Jemma sat up indignantly, flinching at the pain in her head from the sudden movement.

“Sure, had me fooled, Simmons.”

“Jemma. It’s Jemma. And I am not the type of girl to go out drinking but-” Jemma grabbed the trash can, retching again. She coughed and sat it down, finishing the water that was sitting next to her and curled up in Fitz’s bed.

“Sorry... Addison and a couple of girls talked me into it... Said everyone would still see me as a kid if I didn’t...” Jemma mumbled.

Fitz chuckled “You don’t seem like the type to crave validation from people like that.”

“I didn’t think I was, but I guess I'm wrong...”

“Hey, everyone makes mistakes and this could’ve been way worse, right? But you’re safe and all,” Fitz tried to reassure her. He took the water cup and refilled it, handing it back to her. She took it and sipped the water quietly for a moment. Fitz went back to his chair.

“I guess you’re right... I’m sorry you’re having to deal with me. I-I'll get back to my room. Thank you,” Jemma started to get up again, holding her head. The room spun and she laid back down reluctantly, focusing on breathing.

“There you go doing that stereotypical British apologizing thing. You can stay as long as you need, Jemma. I’d hate for you to get hurt somehow on your own if you can’t even sit up,” Fitz frowned worriedly.

Jemma looked down and nodded reluctantly. “Thank you. I am sorry though...” she mumbled and closed her eyes. “But you need to sleep too.”

“I can sleep in my chair or on the floor. A night of it won’t kill me. Do you... uh... want more comfortable clothes? I can go get something from your room if you want,” Fitz offered uncertainly.

“Please...” Jemma nodded. “My pajamas are in the second drawer on the right. Please don’t touch anything else,” she looked back up a little anxiously.

“I promise I won’t,” Fitz replied gently, getting up and picking her keys back up. He left the room and headed to hers, opening the door and going over to her closet, glancing briefly around the room. He smiled when he saw that she had the _Harry Potter_ series on her counter and went back to the task at hand. He found some of her pajamas and headed back to his room, making sure to lock her door.

“Here you go. I promise I didn’t touch anything and I won’t look” Fitz handed her the pajamas and walked back across the room, keeping his back to her.

“Thank you...” Jemma mumbled and slowly changed into her pajamas and curled back up, her other clothes abandoned on the floor. “I’m decent now,” she said quietly.

Fitz turned back around and got up to get her more water so she’d have it if she wanted it. “You’re welcome. Get some rest. If you need anything just wake me back up and ask, ok?”

Jemma hesitated and nodded again. She closed her eyes and fell back asleep. Fitz returned to his chair and glanced back at her before closing his eyes to try and sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! Thank you for reading if you’ve read this far and please leave a comment if you liked it, they seriously make my day! Please excuse my lack of knowledge of the effects of alcohol, I’ve had very little to drink in my life and it was never enough to affect me as it was mostly tasting. Any constructive criticism is as always much appreciated!


	3. The Next Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jemma wakes up the next morning utterly confused.

Jemma awoke slowly the next morning and groaned, rolling over and holding her head. It hurt like hell. The sunlight was too bright. It hurt her head more. The lights in the room were off though at least, and it wasn’t loud in the room. That’s odd though, she always slept with a little floor fan on. She liked the white noise. Maybe she just didn’t turn it on last night. Her eyes fluttered open and she frowned, confused. This wasn’t the color of her sheets.

Jemma froze trying to remember what happened. She left the girls in the Boiler Room. She came back. She tried to unlock her door. She’d dropped her keys! Then she... she didn’t know what was after that. These were her pajamas though, so someone had her keys. Whose bed was this? What did she do?

Someone moved on the other side of the room and Jemma sat straight up, startled, before immediately holding her head as the room spun. She should not have moved that fast.

“Oh, erm, sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you,” a male voice said hesitantly.

“What happened...?” Jemma whimpered, flinching at the sunlight as the room stilled. She lifted her gaze to meet the other person’s eyes and was utterly confused to see Fitz, his curly hair somewhat disheveled from sleep and his blue eyes alight with worry.

“You don’t remember?” Fitz paused.

“Not past dropping my keys... Why am I...? Where...? Did we...?” Jemma asked, getting slightly more anxious as each question trailed off and she stared at Fitz with wide eyes.

“No! I swear, nothing happened, and you changed clothes yourself. You were passed out, I didn’t want you to be alone in case you weren’t ok. Remember? You woke up for a bit, we talked, you threw up, had some water-”

“Oh. I... maybe? It's a little fuzzy.”

“That’s alright. Don’t worry about it,” Fitz shrugged and got her some more water. “It’ll help your head. You’re probably really-”

“Dehydrated. Yes, I can tell,” Jemma sighed and took the water. She drank it quickly and set the cup down on the nightstand. “Thank you,” she added quietly.

“For?” Fitz frowned, confused.

“All of this. Taking care of me. Not doing anything to me,” Jemma pulled her knees up to her chest.

“It’s what any decent human being would do,” Fitz shrugged and stretched to straighten out his back. It was a little sore from sleeping in his chair all night. He’d considered the floor but that was less comfortable to him.

“Yea, well, I don’t think a lot of the ones here would have. They don’t seem to like me much...” she trailed off, picking up her phone which Fitz had set beside her and frowning at her texts from Victoria.

‘Hey, girl where’d you go? Party was just starting!’

‘You’re missing out on a lot of fun’

‘For someone who doesn’t want to be treated like a kid you sure are acting a bit like one’

‘Jemma? Are you ok?’

‘Please just answer so I know you’re ok’

‘Jemma? Please just be asleep and answer in the morning...’

Jemma sighed and started to text back. ‘I’m fine. Funny you would care now though.’ She set the phone down irritatedly and rolled her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Fitz asked, glancing over at her.

“Just Victoria, er, Addison. She’s the one that talked me into going out and it was her and her friends that gave me the drink in the first place and-”

“Just one?”

“Yes, why?”

“Lightweight,” Fitz chuckled.

“Hey! Just... whatever, I guess I am.” Jemma sighed.

“Sorry, I was just trying to make a joke.”

“I don’t happen to like jokes made at my expense.”

“Noted... So, uh, what did she do?”

“They weren’t concerned at all when I left last night and then all of a sudden she’s all concerned and everything could’ve gone so much worse and they didn’t even make an effort to make sure I got back safely and I’m incredibly lucky that it was you who found me,” Jemma rambled, rushing through her words without stopping for a breath.

“Oh, well, that isn’t very civil of her, should at least have walked you back,” Fitz frowned, scratching the back of his neck.

“Suppose it doesn’t matter now... I, um, I should get back to my room then,” Jemma started to get up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and pausing to hold her head.

“Do you need anything for breakfast? I have cereal or yogurt or something. The dining hall might be a bit too loud and bright for you right now...”

“I’ll be-” she started as she moved to stand only to sit back down, slightly dizzy. “Perhaps you’re right. But I hate to keep imposing...”

“No, no, no, you’re totally fine. I don’t have anything to do today anyhow besides homework and I suppose you have much of the same to do,” Fitz shrugged, reaching up to the shelf above his desk and grabbing a box of cereal. “I only have one bowl though... I have a mug; you could have a handle. More stability.”

“Whatever is easiest,” Jemma smiled, slightly amused by the thought. She never would have considered eating cereal from a mug. She supposed there would be more stability though, especially if one was sitting in bed instead of at a table for instance. It wasn’t entirely bizarre. Maybe just a little though.

Jemma had to admit that she was a bit surprised Fitz was being so nice to her though. He never seemed to like her much during class. Maybe she’d read him wrong though; he could have just been nervous. He certainly seemed to be a little nervous now. She imagined he would be; she was a bit skittish herself.

Oh dear, what would her mother think? Jemma hadn’t forgotten the long lectures from her parents about being careful at school and with who she trusted and her actions and, and, and. Ugh. She didn’t want another lecture about it, and she could only imagine how they would react if they knew. Well, there was the slight chance that they wouldn’t be mad. Perhaps just grateful that she was safe. No need to find out if it isn’t necessary though. They didn’t need to know. After all, when would this whole situation possibly ever come up with her parents? There was no reason for it to come up.

Jemma was torn from her thoughts by Fitz handing her the mug of cereal and a spoon. “Thanks,” she said quietly, taking them from him and moving to sit with her back against the wall again.

“You’re welcome,” he smiled, returning to the chair at his desk.

The two ate in peaceful silence, absorbed in their own thoughts. Jemma was trying to figure out how on Earth she was going to get all of her work done with this headache. Fitz was trying to figure out what to say without continuing to sound incredibly awkward. Had he sounded awkward? He wasn’t usually one to appear as uncertain as he had so far this morning. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He hadn’t spoken to her much until now because he was terrified he wouldn’t be able to think of a single intelligent statement. She didn’t seem to mind though. Jemma had stumbled through her own words some this morning and while Fitz supposed she had a bit more of an excuse, could he really be blamed?

Jemma frowned, lost in thought. She had at least eight chapters to read, and she knew she wanted to annotate them. This process often took her quite a bit of time as she was known to be very thorough with her work. Additionally, she had some calculations to make. She couldn’t quite remember at the moment how many there were, what they were for, or why she was supposed to do them, but she knew they must be important. After all, why would it have been assigned if it wasn’t important?

The thoughts of the pair progressed in a similar manner until they had finished breakfast and Jemma again started to get up to leave, feeling significantly better than she had previously. “Thank you again, Fitz, I’ll let you get to work then. I suppose I should as well.”

“You’re welcome, Jemma,” Fitz smiled, rising again and taking the mug from her. He took the dishes to the sink to wash and paused. “And, uh, if you want to talk through any of the homework just let me know, alright? Might be nice to have someone to bounce ideas off.”

Jemma paused to take the trash bag, considering his offer and using the trash as an excuse to not answer. She did feel bad making him deal with her after all, it was the least she could do. She tied off the bag and tucked her clothes from the previous night under her arm.

“I’ll keep that in mind, I think I’d like that,” she smiled back, breaking the silence that had begun to envelop the room.

“I hope your head feels better,” he added as she picked up the trash bag, switching to the hand of the arm holding her dirty clothes against her body, and headed for the door with her keys in her right hand.

“Thank you, I’ll see you later then?” she hesitates for a moment with her hand resting on the handle.

“Sounds good,” Fitz nodded with a smile.

Jemma smiled and opened the door, stepping out into the hallway. She paused, debating between dropping her clothes off in her room first or disposing of the trash before deciding she really didn’t want to keep holding the trash bag. She set off down the hall to the trash room, keeping her head down to avoid the light. Once the trash was properly disposed of, she turned to head back to her room only to be stopped by a familiar voice.

“There you are, Jemma! You’re alright!” Victoria said in an overly cheerful voice.

“Funny that you care now when you didn’t seem to before,” Jemma frowned, wincing a little at the blonde’s volume. Fitz at least had spoken quietly out of respect for her headache, but it felt like Victoria was shouting.

“I did too! But you wouldn’t answer my texts and I couldn’t very well go searching the whole school for you. I tried your room, but you didn’t answer-” Victoria paused, noticing the clothes tucked under Jemma’s arm. “Did you have a good time last night?” she smirked.

Jemma rolled her eyes. “As if you care what happened to me. I could’ve been hurt. You’re the one that dragged me into all of this you know.”

“I do care! But right now, I want to know who you were with because you wouldn’t be carrying your clothes from last night with you to take out the trash if you were coming from your own room so who was it?”

Jemma started to respond but was cut off by Fitz’s voice from down the hall. “Jemma? You forgot your-” he started, holding up her phone and stopping when he saw Victoria and watched the grin on her face grow.

“You’re kidding!” she laughed.

Jemma groaned, the blonde’s laugh was too high pitched and her head still hurt. She wished that Victoria would just go away. Jemma sighed and started to walk away, ignoring the other girl’s protests and attempts to get her to talk. Unfortunately, Victoria followed her down the hall and when Jemma continued to ignore her, she managed to get herself between Fitz and the door to his room, effectively preventing him from escaping.

Jemma took her phone from Fitz’s hand as she walked by and he frowned, realizing that he was going to have to deal with getting the older woman to leave them alone on his own. He watched Jemma unlock her door and step inside, bumping the door shut with her hip while one hand held her head. He should have offered her some painkillers. He’d forgotten he had any.

“Look, Addison, I was just-”

“What? Kicking her out cause it’s morning?”

“No! She wanted to go back to her room!”

“She spent the night in yours then?”

“Yes, but-”

“Funny, I wouldn’t have thought she liked you. Or that you liked her for that matter. You two look like you want to kill each other in chem lab sometimes.”

“Do not! We’re simply focused on our work!” Fitz protested.

“Your work of playing an act so no one would notice you two together?”

“There’s no act!”

“Whatever you say, Fitz, whatever you say,” Victoria grinned and walked away.

Fitz sighed realizing that he never managed to actually deny anything about the previous night. He also wasn’t sure if Jemma was mad at him or just mad at Victoria and now didn’t seem to be a good time to go ask. He glanced at her door and went back into his room to go shower.

Jemma frowned as she went through one of the drawers in her desk trying to remember where she’d put the painkillers. Maybe then her head would stop hurting. She’d left the lights off, relying on the small amount of sunlight shining through the blinds to see as she got some more water and took the painkillers. Maybe a shower would help too. And a nap. She could deal with everything else after that. She wouldn’t be able to get any work done now anyway, though she hated to admit it. It would have to wait. Everything would just have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello there, little bit of a shorter chapter this time because I feel that transitioning to anything else would just feel odd. As always constructive criticism is much appreciated and I hope you enjoyed!


	4. Monday, Great

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks so much for sticking with me on this story if you are! Sorry for the sporadic updates, I had the first three chapters already written and was really excited but then I had to catch up and finish this one.

The weekend passed rather uneventfully and Jemma did end up spending quite a bit of time with Fitz collaborating on their homework. They quickly learned that their short-lived rivalry was a bit silly and that they could work more effectively if they worked together. After all, they seemed somewhat isolated from the rest of the students for now at least. Jemma hoped that she could still make some friends though, but she wasn’t sure what Fitz was hoping for.

Monday morning finally arrived, if one could say finally about a Monday. Jemma, while always one to love school and learning, wanted more than nothing on this particular Monday than to stay in bed and sleep. She hadn’t slept well the previous night as she’d been up late finishing up her reading. She knew fully well that if she wasn’t being so meticulous with her annotations that the reading wouldn’t be taking her nearly as long, but she was the type of person to constantly worry that i f  she wasn’t incredibly thorough that she’d manage to miss some benign detail that would wind up being astonishingly important. Morning Jemma regretted this decision.

The sunlight peeking through the blinds, however, was falling directly onto her face and insisted on her getting out of bed. It nearly seemed to follow her when she rolled over, although Jemma knew this was a ridiculous notion and really there must just be clouds in the sky. With a reluctant groan she pushed herself up to a sitting position, glaring at the sun. Stupid ball of hydrogen and its nuclear fusion. Jemma felt a bit silly, being angry at the sun, but if only the earth could rotate ever so slightly slower. Perhaps not, then gravity would be stronger and everything would get out of sync and if the planet rotated too slowly then the plant life would be affected and the temperature would fluctuate. If it continued to slow down because presumably whatever caused it to slow in the first place was continuing to slow the rotation, the magnetic fields would be affected as well and the levels of radiation would increase and...

_ It’s far too early in the morning for this,  _ Jemma chided herself. She fixed herself some peach green tea and a bowl of cereal and opened the blinds, wincing at the sudden brightness that flooded the room. A quick glance at the clock informed her that she could have stayed in bed a few more minutes if she’d wanted to; her alarm hadn’t quite gone off yet. She was content to have the time to enjoy her tea though, and turned the alarm off before sitting at her desk to watch a grey squirrel sitting in the tree outside her window. It seemed to be working on repairing its nest or  drey . The squirrel, which she identified as an Eastern Grey Squirrel, was scrabbling at a collection of dried leaves and twigs nestled between the branches of the tree. Jemma smiled, watching the little creature work. If it could be up and productive this early then she could do the same, right?

Jemma finished her breakfast and set the dishes by the sink, electing to wash them before she left if she had the time and to deal with them later if she didn’t. She strode over to her closet and selected her clothes for the day, heading to the bathroom to get ready. A peaceful half hour passed as she tied her hair up into a high ponytail, got dressed, and did her usual daily light makeup. Satisfied, she glanced at the clock again and decided to wash her dishes from breakfast before gathering her belongings for class and packing her ba g . She’d taken to leaving for class about ten minutes before she actually needed to, just in case some new bizarre prank await ed  her when she opened the door.

This morning, however, there was just a note that was halfway under her door that she noticed as she started to open it. She shut the door again and picked it up, curiously turning it over. She rolled her eyes as soon as she started to read it. It was some half-baked letter that someone had written and signed as Fitz while ultimately failing to duplicate how he talked.  Er , wrote. She supposed it could have been a close match to his handwriting, maybe, but she wasn’t sure. She was, however, sure that it wasn’t how he would cho ose to write, and certainly not something her would write to her. It looked like a love letter which she considered both incredibly cheesy and not at all his style. 

_ Or maybe that is the type of thing that he’d write. He does seem very sweet... and thoughtful...  _ Jemma shook her head and set the note face down on her desk deciding maybe she could figure out who actually wrote it and was trying to mess with her later. She grabbed her keys again and headed out the door, locking it behind her.

The walk to class was rather boring, although the weather was nice at least. A couple more Eastern Gray Squirrels were near the path that paused as she walked by before scampering off. The squirrels here seemed incredibly fearless. One could almost walk all the way up to the little creatures before they ran away. It was quite fascinating really.

Jemma sat in her usual seat for her first class of the day and sighed when Addison sat beside her with her usual annoyingly perky grin. Well, it wasn’t always annoying. Today, though, the blonde was just radiating a vexing mood.

“So! How was your weekend with Leopold?” Addison teased.

“Fine, thank you, but Fitz and I were just doing homework. For all your talk of me being a child I find your teasing about this rather childish. He was just making sure I didn’t get hurt. Now can we please drop it? It is possible to have a friend of the opposite sex and not be attracted to them. Purely platonic relationships do exist,” Jemma turned to face the blonde, speaking firmly but also sounding slightly defensive near the end. 

“Whatever you say, Simmons, whatever you say,” Addison rolled her eyes, still smiling, and turned back to her work.

Jemma started to respond but was cut off by the start of class. She sighed reluctantly and settled into her seat for the lecture. As the professor talked, she found her mind wandering a bit. Why couldn’t she just focus? Maybe she shouldn’t have stayed up so late the night before.  She’d had to finish her homework though. Well... she wouldn’t have been quite so behind on her reading if she hadn’t spent so much time with Fitz. They’d gotten quite a bit of work done, yes, but they’d also spent a lot of time just... talking. They had more in common than she’d originally realized, from interests to experiences and culture. 

_ We probably could have stood to go without the long Doctor Who debate in particular... But it’s such a dynamic show and there’s so much to discuss! Having another person to bounce my own theories off of makes it so much more fun, too. But then there’s- _

Jemma looked up with a start, torn from her thoughts, as someone elbowed her side. Hard. “Ow! What was that for?” she hissed to Addison.

“You were totally zoned out, I thought you might actually want to take notes,” the other girl whispered.

“Oh... I, um, yes, of course, I do. Thank you,” Jemma mumbled, blushing a little. She was just embarrassed that she hadn’t been paying attention. That was all. She always paid attention in class and organized her notes. They were color coded with multicolored pens!

The rest of class passed slowly as Jemma stared intently at her notebook, looking up as needed as she wrote. The rest of the day passed in a similar manner with Jemma actually staying focused like she normally did, until chem lab.

Jemma sat down at the lab table she shared with Fitz and got out her pens, paper, and lab manual, scrolling through her phone as she waiting for class to begin. Her attention was torn away by a familiar voice as the curly haired young man sat down across from her.

“Afternoon, Jemma,” he smiled. “ Er , Simmons, sorry. Class and all,” he added quickly, looking a little flustered.

“Jemma is just fine still, Fitz,” she smiled brightly.

“I can do Je-that. I can do that,” Fitz nodded quickly and looked down, digging through his bag for his pen.

Jemma raised an eyebrow curiously but didn’t comment, mildly amused. “So, I encountered the most interesting letter under my door this morning. I suppose word got around about Saturday morning, someone is enjoying teasing me far too much and left a love letter signed by you under my door. It would have been quite clever but it didn’t sound like how you talk, in my opinion,” she chuckled.

“Oh... um, well, that is a bit silly, isn’t it?” Fitz frowned, scratching the back of his neck nervously. He supposed the one he got from her the previous morning must have been a fake then... It was a silly hope, that the one girl closest to his age and stunningly beautiful would only view him as a friend. Although he supposed he was incredibly lucky that she even spoke to him at all after how awkward everything had been. 

Why did he write the damn thing anyway? She was right, it did sound so incredibly sappy and not at all like something he would normally say or do, but... He couldn’t help it. It was a stupid excuse, yes, he knew, but he didn’t have any better excuse honestly.

“Fitz? Are you alright?” Jemma frowned, confused as to why he didn’t seem to think it was as funny as she did.

“What? Yes, of course, I was just thinking how bizarre that is because I got one yesterday that was signed from you. I didn’t say anything before, I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable,” he frowned.

“Oh, well that’s very considerate of you, but I think it’s funny more than anything though. After all, nothing happened between us, we’re just friends,” she shrugged.

“Right, just friends who can have a good laugh at silly, childish rumors. Eh?” Fitz forced a smile, hoping it wouldn’t look too forced.

“Exactly! I’m so glad you agree and this doesn’t have to be awkward. I’d hate for that to happen,” Jemma said quickly, looking rather relieved. The moment of silence between them before had seemed to stretch out forever and she had been worried for a moment that he wouldn’t think it was funny at all. It would have been such a stupid little thing to have an argument about after all.

“Me too,” Fitz nodded, turning to listen to the professor who had started speaking. He supposed he just would have to let that though go. It did sting a bit though. That she thought it was such an out of character move for him. He’d thought it was rather sweet while he was writing it. Maybe it was just cheesy and stupid though. He sighed. These were thoughts he’d have to confront another time; he certainly wouldn’t win any points in her book if his lack of focus caused any problems during lab. They would have to wait.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh no! Poor Fitz...
> 
> Constructive criticism is always appreciated and comments literally make my day! Thank you again for reading!


	5. Jemma's Birthday part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long lapse in updates, I got very unmotivated and life got a bit rough, but I'll try to be more consistent and if nothing else get shorter chapters up more frequently! It really just depends on what happens, but thanks for understanding, enjoy!

Fitz hurried back to his room after lab ended, trying not to come off as too cold to Jemma. It had occurred to him about halfway through class that while he did in fact write a letter, he hadn’t ever intended for her to see it. Maybe someday, but certainly not today. It was in a drawer in his desk. It had to be. This was all some cruel joke the world was playing on him. Hahaha, let’s all laugh at Leopold, the world seemed to taunt him. But this was just his mind playing tricks on him of course. The world didn’t have a conscience. It didn’t care. 

He quickly unlocked the door to his room and darted inside, accidentally slamming the door behind him. He tossed his backpack to the side, resulting in a loud thud as the books hit the floor. Fitz rushed to his desk and yanked open the drawer, staring at the empty space in shock. Yes, reasonably he’d realized that someone must have taken it but he had hoped that maybe he was dreaming. Maybe this was all a nightmare and he’d wake up and-nope. It was gone. Brilliant. Bloody brilliant. Why couldn’t this have just been a nightmare? 

Someone must have taken it. Someone must have snuck into his room and gone through his things and taken it. But why? And why give it to her? Is it the same person who wrote the one from her? If it isn’t then this just got infinitely more complicated. Either way it’s complicated. He had no idea who was doing this. Why couldn’t they have found someone else to get their kicks from and not decided to mess with him? 

A knock at the door startled him from his self-loathing and he shut the desk drawer, spinning in his chair to stare at the door. 

“Fitz? Are you alright? If you don’t want to talk that’s fine, you just seemed upset...” Jemma’s voice sounded muffled from the door, but it was clearly her. 

What should he do? Should he explain? No. No way. He couldn’t say that he was the one who wrote it, she’d been laughing at it. She’d laugh in his face. Or would she? She didn’t seem like she would but... 

“Fitz?” She tried again, sounding more worried than before. 

Fitz started to respond but he couldn’t find the words. He didn’t have an excuse. But he couldn’t face her right now. He needed to think. Maybe if he didn’t say anything she would just go away. That could work, right? Maybe she’d think he was ill? 

“I... um... I hope you’re alright... and if you need anything just text me, or I’m right next door... Um... sorry to bother you,” Jemma said gently, her voice still muffled by the door. 

The faint sound of footsteps confirmed that she was gone and Fitz let out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding. He could play along with this. It certainly wasn’t his favorite thing in the world, but he could play along. 

First, he needed to figure out who’d gotten into his room and how though... Fitz frowned for a moment, lost in thought, before remembering about one of the drones he had with him. It had a camera, and while its current battery life was absolutely horrendous, he was sure he could find a way to extend it and use the drone to monitor the doorway to his room. While it wouldn’t be able to tell him who had gotten in before, it could tell him if it happened again. When would they have even had a chance though? When he went to lunch? That had to have been it, but he wasn’t gone very long. Maybe he forgot to lock his door. 

Oh well. Fitz sat down to get to work on the drone, deciding that there was nothing else to be done for now. 

 

Two weeks later nothing much had changed around the Academy for Jemma. The pranks continued, class continued, she got her homework done, Addison and her friends would try to mess with her (it was really confusing to Jemma whether they were her friends or not), and she was starting to think she was settling in. One thing had changed though, and she was admittedly a little let down by it. Fitz would barely talk to her now. 

She tried not to let it get to her, but she’d thought that they were getting along really well and the sudden coldness hurt a little. She couldn’t figure out what was wrong or what she might have said, and every time she asked, he would just smile and brush it off as if nothing was wrong. Jemma didn’t buy it though. She’d figure it out eventually. She had to. 

On yet another Monday morning Jemma awoke to swift knocking at her door and she groaned, rolling over and pulling the sheets over her face. Maybe whoever it was would have some decency and go away. A glance at the clock revealed that it was about six in the morning; two hours before Jemma had to be awake, and as she’d been up late finishing some reading, she’d really like to stay asleep. 

This dream was shattered by the sound of knocking once again, and Jemma sat up with a sigh. She’d have to send whoever it was away. She trudged over to the door and peered through the peephole, squinting tiredly. A bright smile crossed her face as she recognized her new friend, Grace Lee, by her wavy dark brown hair as the older girl tugged at the sleeve of her sweater, debating knocking again. As Grace raised her hand to the door, Jemma pulled it open and Grace froze mid-knock before tackling her friend. Jemma was forced to stumble back a few steps to avoid falling. 

“Happy birthday Jems!” she squealed, hugging Jemma tightly. Grace kicked the door shut to avoid angering any neighbors as much as possible and let go grinning. 

“Grace! You remembered before I even did!” Jemma laughed, going to sit on the edge of her bed. Grace plopped down next to her, setting down the gift bag she’d been carrying and shrugging off her backpack. 

“Sleepyhead,” Grace teased and pulled a container from her bag, popping it open to reveal a couple of chocolate chip muffins. She set the container behind them on the bed and snatched the gift back, pushing it towards a disheveled Jemma excitedly. “Open it!” 

“You surprised me, I wasn’t expecting to see you until later,” Jemma paused and took the bag, pulling out the tissue paper and setting it to the side. A large, rolled up poster sat in the bag and she pulled it out, carefully unrolling it to reveal a volcano and she laughed, remembering how she met Grace. 

The two had quite literally run into each other in the library as each had been absorbed in reading as they walked, which they later acknowledged was mildly dangerous, and they’d ending up knocking over some books on volcanoes. The books had scattered, they’d been scolded by the librarian for being far too loud, and gotten a few ugly looks from fellow students. 

The poster had information scribbled on the back with various facts about volcanoes, no doubt taken from those same books. Jemma set it down carefully as she didn’t want to accidentally damage her present before launching herself at Grace. 

“I love it!” She exclaimed, giggling. 

“Good! I was so worried you wouldn’t get it and would just be like ‘bloody hell, Grace, this doesn’t make any sense! I’m biochem and you’re aerospace engineering, we have nothing to do with volcanoes,’” Grace exclaimed in a rather pathetic imitation of Jemma’s accent, sending to British girl into another fit of laughter. 

“You have got to work on your accent! That was terrible, and I don’t say bloody hell as much as your mocking would suggest,” Jemma rolled her eyes, smiling as she grabbed a muffin and took a bite. She wasn’t sure if it was because of how early it was or if the muffin was actually that good, but she practically melted. “What are you, the queen of muffins?” 

“It’s not hard to make muffins,” Grace insisted, ducking her head in embarrassment at the praise. 

The two bickered back and forth playfully until their conversation turned to school, the other students, and eventually, to Fitz. 

“I think he likes you and you getting that silly fake letter made him nervous,” Grace shrugged with a teasing grin. 

“There’s no way! If he liked me, he wouldn’t be practically ignoring me now. We’ve barely talked to each other the past two weeks and we’re lab partners and neighbors!” Jemma sighed, fiddling with the muffin’s liner. 

Grace plucked the liner from her hands and got up to throw both of them away, glancing over her shoulder. “Frankly, I know I’m not the best example, but you both are really bad at picking up on social ques. Have you seen how he looks at you?” 

“He doesn’t look at me,” Jemma frowned. “And besides, it’s not as if I even have time for a boyfriend right now if that’s what he’s interested in being, so does it particularly matter?” 

“I didn’t say anything about dating him, that was all you,” Grace plopped back down on the bed. “Does that mean you’ve thought about it?” 

“I... well...” Jemma hesitated, ducking her head so her hair covered her face. 

“Is that a yes?” Grace poked her and Jemma batted her hand away. “Aw, c’mon, I won’t tell!” 

“Maybe...?” 

“Maybe so means yes right now.” 

“You don’t know that!” 

“You aren’t denying it!” 

“I... fine, you win. Yes, I’ve thought about it, and I thought we got along really well before but now I feel like I’m losing him as a friend and I don’t know why or what to do,” Jemma sighed, brushing her hair behind her ear. 

“Have you asked?” 

“Duh, he brushed it off.” 

“I could ask!” 

“Please don’t, that would be so much more awkward...” 

“Would it though? Whatever, I say see what happens today, and go from there. It is your eighteenth birthday, if he cares then I’m sure he’ll talk to you today,” Grace smiled, “but for now let’s get you ready, your hair is a mess.” She poked Jemma’s side again and earned a momentary glare before both girls burst into laughter again.


	6. Jemma's Birthday Part 2

Fitz paced outside the cafeteria, the weight of his books in his back mimicking the weight in his heart from nerves. In his hand was a silver gift bag with a birthday present for Jemma. He felt terrible for giving her the cold shoulder recently and he really wanted to make up for it, and what better day than her birthday? Unless she didn’t want to be reminded of home. Maybe this was a horrible idea and he should just forget the whole thing. 

No, he had to try, even if she didn’t necessarily like the present, surely she’d appreciate that he was trying to make up for being a blithering idiot. Maybe if nothing else he could get a laugh and they’d laugh off the past couple weeks and be fine again. Fitz wasn’t sure he could stand the thought of losing her completely, even if just as a friend. He’d have to be blind to not see that even with minimal communication they worked together brilliantly and were excelling in their chem lab, but if he didn’t resolve this there would be no chance she’d want anything to do with him once the semester ended. 

Fitz took a deep, shaky breath and reached for the door to the cafeteria. The door opened with a quiet squeak - it bothered Fitz incessantly that various doors around the Academy squeaked and nothing had been done about it, but he couldn’t let that get to him right now. A glance down at the silver bag reminded him of what was really important, and he brushed off the worry over the door. 

A quick scan of the tables revealed Jemma in her usual spot, and luckily Addison and her friends didn’t seem to be around. Grace wasn’t either, her Monday schedule prevented the two girls from having lunch together and Fitz often sat with Jemma just so neither of them would be alone, but they still didn’t talk much. 

Fitz crossed the room nervously and sat across from Jemma who was absorbed in one of her textbooks. Honestly the girl never seemed to stop studying, but he couldn’t blame her with all the pressure on them here. He slipped his backpack off and set it beside him, resting the gift bag by his other side. 

Jemma hadn’t noticed him yet but her hair wasn’t obscuring her face today. Instead, it was tied up in a high ponytail and she had it pulled over her shoulder, absentmindedly twirling a section around her finger. She glanced up slightly to take a bite of her food and paused when she noticed Fitz, who quickly realized that he’d entirely forgotten to get his own tray of food. 

“Oh, hi Fitz,” Jemma half smiled, letting go of her hair. 

“Um, hi Jemma, I, uh, it’s your birthday, right?” Fitz stammered, reaching up to rub the back of his neck nervously. 

Jemma smiled and nodded. She couldn’t help but notice that he seemed nervous, and her mind wandered to what Grace had said that morning... Jemma was torn from her thoughts by Fitz speaking again and blinked quickly to refocus her attention. 

“I know I've been a bit of an ass recently, but I wanted to, uh, apologize for that. Also, um, happy birthday, I got you something that I thought might remind you of home since we’re both going to be in the States for a while and I get missing home, but, uh...” Fitz trailed off unsure of where that was supposed to be going. 

Jemma nodded slowly, watching him slightly confused. Her expression must have tipped Fitz off because he quickly grabbed the silver gift bag and held it out to her. After a slight pause she took it, set it down, and pulled out the tissue paper. A wide smile crossed her face as she realized what was in the bag and pulled out one of multiple packages of Viennese sandwiches. 

“Fitz! These are my favorite biscuits; how did you know?” Jemma gasped, “And how did you get them here? I’ve looked and haven’t found them or anything similar!” 

“Honestly? I had them shipped from home, but I thought you might like them,” Fitz smiled, ignoring the slight heat on his face. 

“Like them? I love them, and- oh!” Jemma pulled a box of a variety teas out of the bag. Many of them were teas she’d had before and loved and there were a couple that she hadn’t tried, but she was definitely going to try them soon. 

“Too cheesy of a gift for a Brit?” Fitz teased. 

“It’s a perfect gift for this Brit, I’m thrilled! Thank you, Fitz, really, and I don’t know what’s been going on the past couple weeks, but I’d like to move past it and be alright again,” she set the items back in the bag, hoping to have time to run them by her room before her next class. 

“I would too, if that’s alright?” 

“I wouldn’t have said that if it wasn’t,” Jemma laughed, drawing a smile from Fitz. “Join me for lunch?” 

“Sure! I’ll be right back, could you watch my bag for a moment? Any moment not lugging those books around is honestly bliss,” Fitz glanced at the bag and wrinkled his nose slightly. 

Jemma laughed again and nodded, “Of course, they don’t go easy with those books,” she grinned, reaching over to close the textbook she’d been reading. 

“Thanks, Jemma,” Fitz looked back up and smiled, going up to get a tray. 

Jemma watched him go with a smile and turned back to her gift. Grace had definitely been right; he must care or he wouldn’t have gone to all the trouble to get the biscuits for her. The tea box was its own wonderful surprise and she glanced at the tumbler in front of her to realize that the label on the tea bag she’d chosen to have with her lunch was showing, and matched one of the teas in the box. She smiled wider as she realized that he must have been paying attention to what teas she liked based on her choices at lunch, even if he hadn’t spoken much. He must care. 

As soon as Fitz was out of her line of sight, he wiped his sweaty palms on his pant legs and let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. That went surprisingly well, or maybe he’d just been overly nervous for no reason. Suddenly, chem lab seemed like it would be a lot more exciting today. 

 

Fitz and Jemma finished the experiment in their chem lab early and spent the rest of class discussing various theories and comparing notes. Jemma couldn’t help but smile as she walked back to her room, because it actually had been a lot of fun talking to Fitz. He had gone off to the library to study and she was looking forward to catching back up with Grace. The packages of Viennese sandwiches sitting in her room definitely were exciting as well though. 

She unlocked the door to her room and stepped inside, setting her bag down at the foot of her bed and kicking her shoes off. She left the door open for a moment knowing that Grace would be close behind her, and plopped down on her bed to check her phone. She smiled again at a text from her parents and responded quickly before setting her phone down. A quick tug at the ponytail holder brought her long brown hair tumbling down, staying slightly raised in the back from being up all day. Jemma massaged the back of her head carefully, wincing a little. She hadn’t noticed the slight pain until she’d taken her hair down, but it would fade quickly. 

A knock on the open door drew her attention and she looked up with a smile to see Grace, who waved before kicking the door shut behind her, dropping her bag, and collapsing onto the bed beside Jemma. 

“I know we said no complaining about today but Mr. Wilson droned on and on today about physics and he kept talking in a circle, it made no sense and I just wanted to -” Grace groaned and glanced up at Jemma who was still smiling brightly. “You look really happy, what’s going through your head?” 

“Oh, nothing, just that Fitz got me my favorite biscuits from back home and a collection of my favorite teas,” Jemma shrugged, ducking her head to hide behind her hair, which really didn’t work that well since she was still sitting up and Grace was laying down. 

Grace sat up and nearly squealed in delight as she hugged her friend, “That’s so adorable! I told you he cares, and he totally looks at you, especially at lunch, but you never notice because you’re too busy with your books!” 

“Grace... air...” Jemma gasped, struggling against her friend’s arms slightly as she struggled to breathe. 

“Oh! Sorry, I get a little carried away sometimes,” Grace let go quickly, giggling. “But seriously, that’s a lot of trouble to go through, even if it was meant as a thoughtful apology. And you must feel something or you wouldn’t be hiding your face from me!” 

Jemma had gotten up to grab one of the packages of biscuits in hopes that her slight blush would fade by the time she turned back around, but looking at the gift again just brought more heat to her face. Accepting her fate of being teased she turned back around and returned to the bed, plopping down and opening the package. “Ok, maybe, just maybe, I haven’t exactly ever dealt with this before,” Jemma admitted quietly as she took a bite of one of the biscuits. 

“First of all, really? I would’ve thought you had like a high school... Oh, it’s because you’re so ahead for your age, isn’t it?” Jemma nodded slowly in answer to the question and Grace frowned for a moment, lost in thought. 

The silence stretched on for a moment broken only by Grace grabbing one of the biscuits herself as she considered the situation. Jemma finished her biscuit and sat looking at the floor as she idly toyed with her hair. 

“Alright then, Jemma, I’m going to help you. Also, these are cookies, not biscuits,” Grace smiled again as she took on a slight teasing tone. 

“They’re biscuits!” 

“Cookies!” 

“They’re European and there they are called biscuits, so ha!” Jemma pushed her with a smile and Grace flopped back on the bed dramatically. 

“You win, you’ve bested me in combat,” Grace curled up with a hand over her shoulder where Jemma pushed her as she feigned pain, throwing both girls into a fit of laughter. 

“We’d make terrible field agents,” Jemma laughed, flopping down beside her. 

“That’s why we’re in SciTech!” Grace rolled back over with a grin. 

“Entirely true, I’m a terrible liar.” 

“I’ve noticed, but back to the topic you’re avoiding. You two clearly like each other and I’d guess he has no experience with this either. I’d assume you’re both either going to hopelessly act like clueless teenagers until one of you slips, or, you could let me help set you two up!” Grace’s eyes shone with excitement at the idea. 

“I don’t know... I... either way I still don’t have the time for a relationship-” 

“Oh, come off it, if you two go back to how you were at the start of the semester, it’ll be almost the same, because you’re absolutely adorable together anyway, I noticed, you’ll just get to make out when you take study breaks!” 

“Grace!” Jemma exclaimed, covering her face in a failed attempt to hide her blush. 

“Jemma!” Grace mocked playfully as she sat back up to grin down at her friend. “Come on, let me help, please?” 

“And what makes you qualified to help?” 

“Ok, so I know my own love life is like, nonexistent, but I am the queen at pairing people up or helping them confess and I absolutely love giving advice on these things. You two, as I already said, are absolutely adorable and I’d hate to see nothing come of it because you two are too nervous to fess up and there be years of angst until a life or death moment makes one of you finally say something. Not that that’s a likely event. But I mean, it is Shield, I guess anything’s possible,” Grace shrugged. 

“Alright, alright, I get it, you can help if you promise not to outright tell him unless I’m ready and explicitly say that you can,” Jemma moved her hands to look up at Grace uncertainly. 

“Cross my heart and hope to die!” 

“Ok... I trust you,” Jemma smiled and sat back up to hug Grace who squealed again in excitement at her new project. 

“Great! So, I’d say for this week at least to just try and get back to being good friends because if you just started talking again today, even with how obvious I think you two are, you should get back to being comfortable around each other again, got it?” 

“Got it,” Jemma nodded and hugged Grace again. “And... thanks, I’ve never really had a friend to talk to about any of this either.” 

“You’re welcome! Because now you do, and I’ve got your back, I promise.” Grace smiled back and picked up another pair of biscuits, holding one out to Jemma. “Cookie?” 

Jemma rolled her eyes and snatched it from her hand, “Biscuit.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after a lot of thought I've decided that the next chapter will wrap up this story, and if I decide to continue with this idea past there I will make it a series and start another story. Thanks for sticking with me if you have and as always comments make my day and are always loved!


	7. The Pool

A week and a half had passed since Jemma’s eighteenth birthday and she’d fallen into a pleasant routine of getting her work done, studying with Fitz and Grace, or sometimes just one or the other, and actually finding time to relax. Friday nights over the past few weeks had become her favorite because while most students went out to party, Jemma was able to get the pool nearly entirely to herself. There was occasionally another student or two around, but they often didn’t stay long. This particular Friday night was no different, and Jemma was enjoying the silence, broken only by the water lapping against the pool’s walls. 

Fitz paced his room nervously having already changed to a pair of green swimming trunks and a random T-shirt he’d found. A towel lay on his bed, waiting to be taken with him. He knew Jemma would be at the pool, not only had he noticed it was part of her routine, but she’d texted him before she left to invite him to join her. He’d been surprised but figured that it worked out well; he’d decided he needed to tell her how he felt. They’d been getting along so well recently that he hoped that even if the feeling wasn’t mutual, they could stay friends. 

A tendril of doubt crept through his mind as he remembered her reaction to the letter again, and he frowned. Maybe the feeling wasn’t mutual... but she hadn’t brought the letter back up, so maybe she felt the same...? 

“Stop second guessing yourself,” Fitz muttered to himself, shaking his head slightly. He was never going to go through with this if he stayed lost in his own thoughts. He took a deep breath and snatched the towel off his bed before heading out the door, taking care to lock it behind him. He still had the drone that monitored the door, which Jemma had actually been impressed with, but he took extra care to remember to lock the door now. 

Fitz walked down the hall, trying to ignore the pit of nerves in his stomach, and pushed open the door to the room with the pool. He shut the door behind him quietly and paused, watching Jemma float serenely in the water. She was wearing a red bikini and her hair flowed around her in the water. He could tell her eyes were closed and if it wasn’t for the slight movements she made to keep herself from bumping into a wall, he would have thought she’d fallen asleep. 

A glance around the room showed her belongings perched on a chair to his left with an empty chair beside them. He walked over to it quietly and slipped off his shoes before setting the towel and his keys on the chair. After a moment’s hesitation he tugged his shirt off and dropped it on top of the towel. If she hadn’t been comfortable with seeing him shirtless, she wouldn’t have invited him to swim, right? 

He moved over to sit at the edge of the pool, pausing when she opened her eyes at the movement and turned her head to look at him, seeming momentarily startled. She rolled over and swam over to him, propping herself up at the edge of the pool with her arms and smiling up at him. 

“Hey, Fitz,” Jemma smiled brightly. 

“I, uh, hey?” Fitz responded uncertainly as he watched her. He really wanted to be able to keep eye contact with her but that meant looking down and she was making that incredibly difficult with the bikini and all. Why hadn’t he thought about that before? He blinked trying to focus and not stare like a complete idiot. 

“Earth to Fitz, you there?” she teased, nudging his leg. 

“What? Huh? Yeah, I’m here, sorry, I just, uh, can we talk?” 

“Sure?” Jemma paused uncertainly, shifting to push herself up out of the water to sit beside him. “What’s up? Is something wrong?” she frowned worriedly. 

“No! Not at all, nothing’s wrong at all, just, um, you look really pretty,” Fitz rubbed his neck nervously. 

“Oh! Thank you, I, promise it’s not just the bikini? I’m not usually a big fan of showing this much skin, but I figure it’s a pool and it’s comfortable, and there’s hardly ever anyone here Fridays to make me nervous and I’m comfortable around you,” Jemma rambled, forgetting to breathe as she talked before realizing what she said and ducking her head, reaching for a strand of her wet hair to twirl around a finger. 

“I promise I thought that before I walked in the door!” Fitz exclaimed quickly. “But, um, I’m glad you’re comfortable around me, I hope I didn’t mess that up...” he frowned slightly. 

“Not at all! I, sorry, it’s just been a long day and you know I ramble sometimes.” 

“I know, you do it when you get excited about something or when you get nervous, and sometimes you forget to breathe-” 

“And then you finish my sentences,” Jemma looked up, smiling. 

“Or we switch,” Fitz laughed. 

“Or we switch,” Jemma nodded, giggling. 

“Which is honestly just one of the many reasons that I... I really, really like you Jemma,” Fitz said quietly, watching her for a moment before turning to stare down into the pool. 

Jemma stared at him uncertainly while her mind raced, searching for a response. Of course, she felt the same, but she had been meaning to tell him tonight, without telling Grace, because she really just needed to get it off her chest. What was she even supposed to say to that? Ok the obvious was to say she liked him too but that just, she needed time to think. But she couldn’t just leave, that would freak him out and- 

Without thinking, Jemma reached out and shoved against Fitz’s back, sending him tumbling into the pool. He yelped in surprise as he went under, floundering to find his footing. Jemma entirely hadn’t meant to do that, but she couldn’t help but laugh as she struggled to process and watched him. Suddenly, a sharp tug on her feet pulled her off the ledge and straight into the water next to him as he surfaced, laughing despite his uncertainty at how she felt. 

In Fitz’s book, her not leaving was a good enough response for now, he didn’t need an answer tonight, but knowing that she was still willing to spend time with him made everything ok for now. He covered his mouth laughing as she scrambled to her feet and splashed him indignantly. 

“Fitz! I wasn’t ready!” Jemma laughed, coughing a little but smiling all the same. 

“And I was? You started it by pushing me!” Fitz protested, splashing her back. 

The two quickly ended up in a splash fight ended only by Jemma grabbing Fitz hands and pressing a kiss to his cheek. 

“I... I like you too,” she said quietly, looking up at him nervously. 

“So you pushed me?” 

“I panicked! You pulled me in!” 

“Only because you pushed me!” 

“You put me totally off guard and the silence would have been terrible!” Jemma laughed, leaning against him. 

“I was just thrilled you didn’t leave,” Fitz admitted, wrapping his arms around her to hold her since that seemed to be what she wanted. 

“I highly doubt I’ll ever want to,” she smiled, turning her head to look up at him. 

“I didn’t have you pinned as cheesy,” he teased. 

“Unfortunately, I can’t be good at everything and this entire situation is unfamiliar to me.” 

“If it was familiar, I’d be worried, means I would’ve forgotten somehow.” 

“No, I mean, I... I don’t get relationships.” Jemma ducked her head to stare down at the water. “I’ve never been in one and there’s never been time with school and I’ve always been younger than my peers so that would be entirely inappropriate so any silly girlhood crushes never led anywhere and this feels different which I entirely don’t understand because I don’t know if it’s because I’m older or because of you and I-” she stopped to breathe, she’d forgotten she had to. 

“Jemma?” 

“Yes?” 

“I don’t know what I’m doing either, but can I kiss you?” 

“You want to?” Jemma looked back up; surprise shone in her eyes. 

“I think I’ve wanted to since the first day in chem lab,” Fitz admitted. 

“Now who’s cheesy?” 

“Both of us. I guess it fits?” 

“Was that supposed to be a pun?” 

“Entirely terrible, wasn’t it?” 

Jemma laughed and nodded, shifting to rest her head on his chest. She felt safe and happy and part of her thought that she must have still been floating in the water by herself day dreaming because this couldn’t possibly have gone so well... 

A gentle kiss on her head drew her attention and she looked back up at him. “I never answered, did I?” 

“Not in the slightest.” 

Jemma smiled and instead of answering, reached up to wrap her arms around his neck and tilted her head, gently pressing her lips to his. After a moment’s hesitation from a mixture of surprise and uncertainty, Fitz kissed her back, sliding his arms further around her waist to pull her closer. 

Jemma pulled away after a moment and rested her forehead on his. “Thank you...” she murmured. 

“For?” 

“Being willing to figure this out with me.” 

“I don’t think I’d rather figure it out with anyone else.” 

“If I kiss you again will you stop being cheesy?” Jemma raised an eyebrow. 

“Probably not, but you should check,” Fitz grinned watching her. 

Jemma giggled and smiled back before kissing him again. A small voice in the back of her mind worried that the teasing they’d endured would just get worse, but she honestly couldn’t bring herself to care for once. It couldn’t matter much, and it wouldn’t as long as they had each other and could face it together. 

A couple hours later it was fast approaching midnight, and Jemma speed walked down the hall to Grace’s room, trying to ignore that her hair was still dripping water down her back. She’d had to shower when she got back to her room, she hated when her hair smelled like chlorine for too long, but had texted Grace to forbid her from going to sleep until they talked. After a quick knock at the door was followed by silence, she opened the door to Grace’s room and nudged it shut behind her. Grace had promised to leave it unlocked for her. 

“What was so important it couldn’t wait until morning?” Grace sat up, leaning back against her headboard and setting her phone down. 

Jemma plopped down on the edge of the bed with a sigh, trying to hide that she felt absolutely giddy. “I wanted to tell you that I don’t need you to try and set me up with Fitz anymore...” she looked down to hide her expression, she was a terrible liar and if Grace could see her face, she wouldn’t believe her for a minute. 

“What?! What happened? Did he do something to you? Turn out to be an ass? Do I need to fight him? I’ll fight him if he hurt you, just say the word and-” Grace started to scramble out of bed, determined to give him a piece of her mind. 

“No! Grace, that’s not it at all!” Jemma replied quickly, getting up to snatch Grace’s hand and pull her back to sit down. 

“Ok... so no fighting?” 

“Please don’t fight, I couldn’t bear to pick sides.” 

“Why would you be- did you tell him?!” Grace grabbed Jemma’s hands and stared at her wide-eyed. 

“Well, I invited him to the pool with me and-” 

“Is he cute?” 

“What?” Jemma paused, startled. 

“Is he cute?” Grace repeated with a teasing grin. 

“I, well, yes, but,” Jemma ducked her head in a failed attempt to hide the blush spreading across her cheeks. 

Grace laughed and poked her impatiently “Tell me what happened!” 

“I was until you interrupted!” 

“Sorry! I’m just excited, and it’s fun to embarrass you.” 

“You... fine. So, he came to the pool and he sat down to talk to me and I swam over to sit by him and he told me how he felt and I panicked and pushed him into the pool...” Jemma explained quickly. 

“Why on earth would you do that?” 

“As I said, I panicked.” 

“You’re ridiculous.” 

“He pulled me in after!” 

“You totally deserved it then.” 

“Probably,” Jemma giggled and pulled her legs up onto the bed so she could face Grace. 

“Did you bring a towel?” Grace frowned. 

“No, why?” 

“You’re dripping on my pillow. Hold on,” Grace walked into the bathroom and returned a moment later, throwing a towel at Jemma who put her hair up in it. 

“I forgot about that...” 

“I noticed,” Grace laughed and sat back down across from her, “so what next?” 

“I told him I felt the same and he asked if he could kiss me? I said yes,” Jemma smiled and Grace squealed, hugging her tightly. 

“How was it? Are you together now? You’d be so cute together I might die please tell me you’re together!” 

“I don’t have a comparison!” Jemma protested, hugging Grace back. This was precisely why she’d had to come here; she couldn’t have Fitz hearing them squeal over it. 

“So?” 

“Well, I thought it was good. I like his hair. And his eyes. Have you seen his eyes? They’re my favorite shade of blue,” Jemma giggled. “And yes, we’re together now.” 

“Good you like his eyes then since you’re gonna be looking at them a lot, isn’t it?” 

“Yes, it is,” Jemma smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shoutout to my friend rulesofthebeneath(radishphilosophy) for reading this as I wrote it and letting me borrow her OC, Grace! Also this is the first multichapter fic I've ever finished so while I know it took a while I'm really proud of that. Thanks to anyone who read it!

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Any constructive criticism would be much appreciated! I am planning to continue this story but I don't know how often I'll update and any additional tag suggestions would be great! I don't know the tags here, I'm new.


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